Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 222-225. (Budapest, 2013)
TANULMÁNYOK - Müller Miklós: Egy 1952-es Kossuth díj - A dialektikus szovjet sejtbiológia rövid regnálása Magyarországon
46 Comm, de Hist. Artis Med. 222—225 (2013) The reaction of the scientific world to her New Cell Theory was complete and immediate rejection. This she regarded as a personal attack from survivors of the old guard Soviet professors who kept their idealistic worldview. After repeated rejections she succeeded - as an „old bolshevik” - having her monograph published in 1945 (Lepeshinskaya 1945; see Gaisinovich, Muzrukova, 1991). In this she summarized all her work and ideas. Lysenko himself signed the preface to her monograph that is worth quoting in full: „Successful experimental work conducted by Olga Borisovna Lepeshinskaya over many years on the problem of origin of cells not from existing cells but from substance without cellular structure reperesents a great advance in the theoretical foundations of our Soviet biology. For those scientific workers who did not yet get rid of metaphysical approaches in their scientific thinking, evidently not only the theoretical foundations and conclusions might not be acceptable, but they might also deny the validity of the concrete part of her work since it does not agree with their theoretical views. But those scientists, who stand for the tenets of the genuine theory of development, theory of dialectic materialism, the data presented by O.B. Lepeshinskaya are fully acceptable. By using the methods developed by Lepeshinskaya, the experiments can be repeated over and over again sucessfully and one can convince himself that the cell as well as its contents are nothing special. Cells and their contents can arise not only from something similar to them, i.e. from [another - my comment] cell. In given stages of the development and life of an organism and of its individual organs, cells can develop not only from cells but also from certain substances that lack the structure chracteristic of cells. This fundamentally new idea of biological sciences has been brillantly proven by Lepeshinskaya in her delicate experiments. This is her great scientific merit. We can be sure that the scientific-practical significance of her work will increase in future years. October 27, 1945. Academician T. Lysenko. " (Lepeshinskaya 1945 3.; 1950 V.; 1951 1.). Until 1950, Lepeshinskaya’s work was entirely disregarded by Soviet biologists. A number of scathing critiques were published before WWII, these along with her replies are presented in excruciating detail in her monograph. A postwar review of her monograph did conclude: „Lepeshinskaya presents obsolete...views as progressive, revolutionary ones, [and] thus confuses the general reader and misleads sutdents. She might have good intentions, but her book could easily discredit Soviet science if it did not have such high reputation already. The unscientific book by Lepeshinskaya is a sad blot on Soviet literature on biology.” (Khlopin et al., 1948). In 1950, the year of several major scientific „debates” in the USSR7 her status changed dramatically. New Cell Theory became part of the canon of genuine materialistic Soviet science based on the genial teachings of Marx -- Engels - Lenin - Stalin. A Joint Meeting of the Biology Division of the Academy of Science of the USSR and of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences was hastily convened in May 1950 (a non 1950a, 1951, 1953, see also Gaisinovich and Muzrukova 1991). At this meeting Lepeshinskaya and her coworkers presented their work, and in the discussion a number of senior Soviet scientists endorsed 7 The history of Lepeshinskaya’s New Cell Theory has considerable literature in Russian. Good historical overviews are eg. Aleksandrov, 1987, Gaisinovich and Muzrukova, 1991, Chesnova et al., 1994 . Relatively few papers are in Western languages (against New Cell Theory e.g. Nachtsheim 1951, Shumeiko 2001, Soyfer 2010; supporting New Cell Theory e.g. Khrushchov 1951, Safonow 1954).
